Latvian man pleads not guilty over Gozi computer virus scheme

Deniss Calovskis, 29, entered the plea in federal court in Manhattan a day after being extradited from Latvia to face charges that he wrote some of the computer code that made the so-called Gozi virus so effective. An indictment against Calovskis was unsealed in January 2013 when prosecutors announced separate charges against Nikita Kuzmin, a Russian whom they say created the virus, and Mihai Ionut Paunescu, a Romanian who allegedly ran a service that enabled its distribution. Prosecutors say Calovskis, who resided in Riga, Latvia, was hired to develop a computer code that altered how banks’ websites appeared in order to trick victims into divulging personal information.

Read more

BMW-backed car parking app raises half crowdfunding target on debut

By Andrew Winterbottom LONDON (Reuters) – JustPark, a London-based start-up that launched the world's first in-car parking app, is nearly half way to achieving a 1 million pound ($1.5 million) equity fundraising target just 12 hours after its debut on crowdfunding platform Crowdcube. JustPark's app connects car-park owners, often individuals with a private parking space at their home, to drivers looking for a place to park

Read more

Alibaba’s Jack Ma seeks to reassure employees over U.S. lawsuits

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd Executive Chairman Jack Ma urged employees to relax about U.S. lawsuits against the firm over possible failure to disclose information to investors, in a letter to staff posted on his official microblog on Friday. A series of lawsuits have been filed in the United States after an unusually public fracas with a Chinese regulator last month over the issue of fakes being sold on Alibaba's websites.

Read more

Chinese regulator says to target e-commerce pricing behavior

A Chinese antitrust regulator said on Friday pricing tactics in the nation's e-commerce sector will be probed to ensure a “fair” market, likely putting new scrutiny on companies such as Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and JD.com Inc. The comments come just two weeks after another government regulator, the State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC), accused Alibaba of failing to clean up what it called illegal business deals on the e-commerce titan's platforms. The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said in a statement on its website that it would “organize and develop special inspections into the online retail sector's pricing behavior”

Read more

China to go after fraud on online dating sites: Xinhua

BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s Internet regulator will target fraud on dating websites and other online match-making sites, state news agency Xinhua reported. “Fraud on dating websites has become a public nuisance to millions of users, especially young people, who use such services,” Xinhua cited a statement from the Cyberspace Administration of China as saying, in a report released late on Thursday.

Read more

Obama to encourage companies to share cyber threat data

By Joseph Menn and Roberta Rampton SAN FRANCISCO/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama is set to sign an executive order on Friday aimed at encouraging companies to share more information about cybersecurity threats with the government and each other, a response to attacks like that on Sony Entertainment. The order sets the stage for new private-sector led “information sharing and analysis organizations” (ISAOs) – hubs where companies share cyber threat data with each other and with the Department of Homeland Security. It is one step in a long effort to make companies as well as privacy and consumer advocates more comfortable with proposed legislation that would offer participating companies liability protection, the White House said

Read more

Commuter infected with measles is San Francisco LinkedIn employee

By Dan Whitcomb LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The Northern California commuter who health officials say may have exposed tens of thousands of people to measles while riding San Francisco’s Bay Area Rapid Transit system while infectious is an employee of LinkedIn Corp, the social networking company said on Thursday.

Read more

New games help King Digital revenue, profit beat estimates

(Reuters) – Mobile game maker King Digital Entertainment Plc's quarterly revenue and profit handily beat market estimates as newer games such as “Candy Crush Soda Saga” more than made up for declining popularity of older titles. King Digital, whose shares jumped 18 percent in extended trading on Thursday, also said it would buy Seattle-based game developer Z2Live Inc. Total gross bookings, an indicator of future revenue, increased 8 percent to $586 million in the fourth quarter ended Dec.

Read more